The Ontario Labour Relations Board has upheld an $8,812.14 award to a Toronto woman dismissed by a law firm while she was on maternity leave.

The tribunal found Heydary Hamilton PC violated the Employment Standards Act when it terminated Kai Yorke Edwards after the birth of her daughter.

Edwards began working at the firm in October 2008 as a legal assistant in the litigation department. She went on pregnancy leave in September 2009.

In June 2010, following two visits to the office during her leave, Edwards was terminated in an email from senior manager Lillian Zarabi.

Zarabi cited Edwards for previous performance issues and characterized an emailed reminder from Edwards that her job, by law, was to remain available to her for one year “an indication of insubordination.”

The board found that while concerns about Edwards’ work — related to urgent or last-minute tasks that might require her to stay late or seek assistance from others, and the amount of time she had been observed to be spending on personal matters — were documented before her maternity leave, “there is no suggestion they were regarded as sufficiently serious to warrant any discipline, let alone dismissal.”

Either Edwards’ earlier performance was a pretext for firing her for having taken a leave or she was fired for sending the email reminding the firm to comply with the employment act, the board said in its decision. Both are contrary to the act.

The compensation reflects lost wages, loss of the intrinsic right to a job and $500 for pain and suffering,

Ontario Labour Relations Board vice-chair Mary Anne McKellar said the award, which does not include job search expenses, “may in fact have been on the low side.

“Had Ms Edwards filed a cross-appeal, I might well have increased it based on my observations,” she wrote.

Edwards, who eventually found a lower-paying job, told the Star she did not wish to comment on the board’s findings.

Olanyi Parsons, who represented the law firm, said he had not yet received a copy of the judgment.

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